The Tragical Magical Maladies of Galinda Upland (of the Upper Uplands)
by heatqueen
Summary: Elphaba would forever regret the day she got Morrible to give Galinda that damn training wand. Post 'Popular'. Gelphie friendship.


**The Tragical Magical Maladies of Galinda Upland (of the Upper Uplands)**

**A/N: To anyone reading 'Overcoming Adversity', the next few chapters are on their way, I PROMISE. I'm just doing a bit of rewriting right now because I wasn't really satisfied with how they came out. But they will be here soon.**

**I just wanted to mention the user PrincessKadenceOfMusic, who inspired this fic. I want to point you in the direction of her one shot entitled 'The Tragedy', which was inspired by her fascination with the fact that the words 'magic' and 'tragic' rhyme. Through talking to her, I also gleaned a bit of inspiration from the magic/tragic thing so I decided to write my own one shot. Don't worry, no one's plagiarised anyone, we've both agreed that this is okay and they're completely different types of fiction. So, after reading this one, go and read hers. :)**

She was humming.

A thing which Galinda did not have the voice for. It squeaked out, high pitched and airy, floating its way across the room and into Elphaba's irritated ears. Elphaba sighed – this evening was one of those days she sorely regretted helping Galinda to get the damn training wand from Morrible. Because, really, she was just _too_ happy about it.

Elphaba would never study again.

She wouldn't be able to, not with this mess of a human being living in the room with her. The pink had been bad enough – it was garish to her eyes – but at least she was able to block it out with the relieving, demure shades of the letters on the pages of her beloved books.

But the humming.

Elphaba regretted leaving the library, but it only stayed open until ten o'clock, and she had been banished, once again the last student to leave. She was fraught to be rid of that voice and its girlish inflections and endless cheeriness. She had expressed her irritation several times over, and Galinda had replied her sweet apology, but had never been able to hold herself to it. Usually it took no more than a mere minute for her to forget that she had been asked to silence, and the humming would resume once again.

Galinda sat on the floor with a grin on her face, twirling the wand in her hand, occasionally giggling and saying how pretty it was. The manner in which she carelessly waved it around like a gimmick was nerve inducing. Should she somehow tap into what little magical talent she may or may not possess, disaster would occur, which could result in one or more casualties. Elphaba did not want to feel like she was about to be responsible for the deaths of any fellow students from being the catalyst of her roommate receiving the training wand.

Still, in spite of the infuriating merriment, Elphaba had little choice but to feel warm that Galinda had gotten what she wanted. Rolling her eyes, she turned back to her book, doing her best to block out the noise which she had long since given up trying to silence, but not ten minutes later it came to her attention that she was not going to get her peace tonight.

A loud, piercing squeak echoed through the room, followed by an onset of giggles. Elphaba glanced up from her text – then dropped it on her lap as she saw what was in front of her.

Galinda was surrounded by glitter…which was coming out of the wand.

'Miss Galinda! Stop that right now!' Elphaba snapped, getting off her bed and storming over to where Galinda was now lying on the carpet, shaking hysterically, with happy tears streaming down her cheeks. 'Miss Galinda! You are getting glitter everywhere!'

'Oh – Elphie,' she choked, and Elphaba grimaced at the perky, quirky nickname, 'it's – so – pretty!'

'Pretty infuriating, you mean. Do you have any idea how long this is going to take to clean up?'

Galinda scrambled off the floor, still waving the wand around.

'But look! You can create pictures!'

She swirled the thing in the air in wide strokes. Elphaba watched in horror as the horrid, sparkly, pink stuff flew around the room, landing everywhere including her hair, and more importantly, her precious books.

'E…L…P…'

The letters of Elphaba's name spilled out of the wand, disappearing quickly as the glitter fell from the air.

'…B…A! There I spelled your name!' Galinda said triumphantly.

'That's really not the point…'

'Look, I can spell my name too!'

'Good to know,' Elphaba muttered as Galinda recommenced the glitter letters.

It was even getting in her eyelashes. Elphaba wished that she would be able to simply vanish the stuff once Galinda had gotten over this latest bit of nonsense, but her magic had never been that stable and would probably result in more of a mess than there already was.

'Galinda!' she barked loudly.

Galinda stopped in her tracks. Slowly she lowered the wand. To Elphaba's massive relief, the glitter stream ceased and the last bits fell onto the carpet.

'Yes?' Galinda replied.

'Put the wand away. _Now._ Before I take it away and hand it back to Morrible. Sweet Oz, maybe it was a bad idea after all.'

Her lips transformed into a pout. Her eyes widened into reproachfulness. The wand dropped back onto her desk with a light click which spread throughout the silence. The pink glitter no longer looked cheerful, but dead. Now she looked more like a child in trouble for stealing candy than an eighteen year old student. Elphaba wondered if she'd been too harsh.

'I got carried away,' Galinda admitted in a soft tone.

Elphaba sighed and reluctantly gathered her roommate into a hug.

'Yes you did, my sweet.'

'Please don't take it away,' Galinda pleaded. Her blonde head rested on Elphaba's chest, a contact Elphaba was unused to. The gentle quality of Galinda's voice had succeeded (to her horror) in making her feel guilty for her harshness. She was not sure what to do. Did she stroke the hair? Did she let go? Thankfully Galinda made that decision for her, pulling back out of the hug.

'Don't you worry your pretty head off, my sweet. The wand isn't going anywhere.'

Her shoulders sagged in relief. She stared around the room despondently, then instantly perked up, and Elphaba wondered what was going through her head this time. Sweet Oz, she was glad Galinda was not upset, but if she had another glitter spree, there was going to be trouble.

'Good, because I have plans.'

Oh no.

Galinda picked up the wand again then bounced back into the middle of the room. She looked from one side to the other, and then pointed the wand at Elphie's bed.

'Pink,' she said, but nothing happened.

'Galinda,' Elphaba warned.

'_Pink!'_ Galinda tried again. 'Stupid thing. It was working earlier. Pink, I said, PINK!'

And before she knew it, a spark jumped out of the wand and hit not the bed, but Elphaba herself. It felt, to Elphaba, like someone had blasted her with hot air, creating a warm aura around her body. She looked down at herself, dreading the outcome of this latest bit of magic. Her skin was still as green as ever. Her dress remained black. Slowly, she raised a hand and ran it through her hair, pulling one strand of it forward.

The strand was bright, garish pink, just like the glitter.

Galinda stared at her thoughtfully.

'Well, they say pink goes good with green,' she said.


End file.
